MLW – Chapter 22

—When we reached the forest, we immediately crouched to gather plants. We put the things we gathered into a basket. It was convenient because you could carry the basket on your back.

I didn’t mind if I gathered less than I normally did. This time, my main purpose was to see how Harukara worked.

If she gathered a plant that I didn’t normally use, I’d like for her to teach me about it. For a long time, I didn’t associate with people in the same trade as me, so it’d be good if I could do an information exchange.

I felt that Harukara’s line of sight consisted more of trees rather than the grasses.

“Ah~, there it is, there it is.”

She took the mushroom from the base of the tree.

She also gathered the mushrooms growing from the ground.

After pushing through, there were more mushrooms secretly hiding behind the clump of bushes.

At first glance, the color looked really gaudy, and the scary mushrooms also were probably poisonous.

“You’re only taking those sort of mushrooms?!”

Of course I’ve also used mushrooms, but I hadn’t taken all the mushrooms here so far. Actually, within Harukara’s harvest, some mushrooms that I had been ignoring for a long time were mixed in.

“My field of expertise is mushrooms. Incidentally, only for medicinal use. There are poisonous mushrooms also mixed in that, are also dangerous if you eat them.”

“Certainly, there are also times in which you’d use poisonous ingredients, but…”

“Because the climate in my hometown is different, the variety of mushrooms here are quite peculiar. These are worth gathering!”

After that, Harukara focused on harvesting the previous type of mushroom. Or perhaps I should say, she only picked mushrooms. Rather than a medicine doctor, she felt more like a mushroom researcher.

“This is the Akatsuki Ryoteike. This is the Oomaru Mushroom. There’s also the Nezumi Korogari Mushroom.”

There was nothing that I didn’t know the name of, but there were quite a few that could be used as decent medicines which I didn’t remember how to use.

Come to think of it, it seemed that medicine made by witches differed by regions. Naturally, that was because the environment of each plant is different, but…

Halfway through gathering, it became Harukara’s Mushroom Lecture Time.

Since I would be using this as a reference in the future, I listened seriously.

“This mushroom has poison—”

“Actually, with this mushroom, if you boil it for about ten minutes, the red composition will dissolve and disappear, you know—! Then, you can use it as a tasty mushroom for the dining table!”

“Eh? There is such a method?”

“In addition, people with authority would purposely leave a little bit of poison and eat it. In doing so, they would feel a certain excitement, and it seemed to bring a sense of euphoria.”

There were reckless people anywhere.

“Because this Korokoro Mushroom is small, it’s rarely seen, but because the texture is actually interesting, it’d be a nice garnish with fried foods.”

“Eh, you can eat this? I don’t think even the people in the village near here would eat this.”

“It’s not something that can fill a stomach, but it’s the type where you enjoy the texture. Certainly, the size is small, so it probably won’t appear much on the market as an item for sale—.”

While I was being taught by the mushroom expert, it was already time for lunch.

As expected, when one learns from a specialist, you would come to understand various unknown things in the commonplace world.

Not to mention, my mushroom cooking recipes increased by a bit as well.

“I never would have thought herb harvesting would be this exciting. Thanks!”

I obtained something more interesting than what I had imagined.

“No, not at all, as long as you had fun. There are many unfamiliar herbs growing here, so next time please teach me about these herbs, Master.”

Certainly in relation to plants, because I am a local, I am more knowledgeable than Harukara.

Just because she is an elf doesn’t mean that their knowledge regarding medicine is perfect. My knowledge is only limited by the plants that grow around where I live.

“Also, when a monster attacked, Master defeated it for me! The rumors that you were extremely strong were true!”

“If it’s those that appear in this forest, just leave them to me.”

Aah, I’m not Level 99 just for show. As one would expect, there was no way for me to lose to the small fry monsters that appeared in this forest. I’d only defeated Slimes and huge Ghost Rabbits, but just by meeting the Ghost Rabbits put Harukara in quite in a panic.

“Well then, shall we have lunch? I brought sandwiches.”

They were the sandwiches I made when I got up early in the morning.

“Thank you very much! [1] However, because Master is taking care of me, please let me cook here too!”

As she said that, Harukara brought out a net and something similar to what they called an alcohol lamp in Japan. Somehow, I remembered a science experiment I did a long time ago.

She placed a flat stone on top of that lamp looking thing. Was it something similar to a simple barbeque?

“On the days I’m collecting mushrooms, I like to grill mushrooms that can be eaten like this! Coincidentally, there is a streamlet over there so I can wash the dirt off the mushrooms, and the condition of this location is the best!”

There was no doubt that Harukara was well-informed, so I believed her.

While grilling the mushrooms, we ate the sandwiches I brought and waited.

“Oh, the small one has been grilled!”

Then for some reason, Harukara brought out a container containing a black sauce.

“Here, it’s a sauce called Elvin. Since it is the commonplace sauce found in dishes of elves, they based its name off an elf.“

I drizzled that on top of the grilled mushroom.

Then, the mushroom made a sizzling sound, which certainly stimulated my appetite.

Oh, this smell, it’s similar to soy sauce?!

“Elvin is made by fermenting several kinds of beans. I feel like this should be eaten by people in all countries—”

As expected, it’s a soy sauce comrade!

The way to eat it is to stab a nicely grilled mushroom with a fork.

Because it was hot, I put in inside my mouth after blowing it —

“Uwaaa! This is delicious!”

Simple is best! [2] It’s the best!Also, Elvin had a similar type of taste to soy sauce. It smelled worse compared to soy sauce, but it also depended on the different fermentation techniques.

“Aah, sake! If I had sake, I’d have nothing to say!”

Why, now, there was no beer! I wanted to blurt that out. Incidentally, there was an alcoholic beverage similar to beer in this world.

“Well then, please eat more! Each one has a different texture!”

Unexpectedly, we decided to have a mushroom party in the middle of the forest.

Footnotes:

1. TL: It’s rare for my footnotes to be in the middle of the sentence, but this time I decided it was pretty necessary. I used “Thank you very much” as the translation, but in reality, it’s not what it actually means. ありがたくいただきます is a phrase when someone says when accepting something with thanks, in this case, it’s the lunch that Azusa made.↩

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